Tomica Limited - Group C Cars

Group C Racing

"Group C was the Sports Prototype class introduced in 1982 along with Group A and Group B for production cars. The series ran in varying forms from 1982 until 1993, when a change of engine regulations killed it as a viable form of racing.

Until the introduction of the 3.5 litre class, Group C was a 'fuel consumption' series. Essentially, anything went in terms of engines, provided you could get them to run through a race on a limited amount of fuel. This allowed production engines like the Aston and Mercedes V8s and Jaguar V12s to compete head to head with Mazda's rotary engines and Ford's Cosworth V8s. Some criticised the formula, saying that cars had to hold back early on or back off late in the race, but it produced a great variety of solutions, attracted many manufacturers and provided some great racing.

Every generation of race fan will have their own idea of the 'golden era' of racing, but for me, the 1980s are going to take a lot of beating. We had the sight and sound of Jaguar racing against Mercedes against Porsche and the massed ranks of the Japanese manufacturers (notably Mazda, Nissan and Toyota), with supporting roles played by Aston Martin, Spice, Ecurie Ecosse and many others.

Group C started, as so many good sportscar racing ideas do, at Le Mans. In 1978 Renault had won with a Group 6 (open 2 seater) sportscars, but to aid aerodynamics they'd fitted a bubble top, with just a small slit in front (for visibility) and a hole in the top (to ensure the car remained 'open' and complied with the rules). This was possibly the catalyst for the GT prototype class which started at Le Mans. "

Tomica Limited produced this 2 cars boxset, presenting Nissan 1984-85 Group C racers!